10 Ways to Bring More Balance to Your Life

10 Ways to Bring More Balance to Your Life
By Michelle Casto

The World Health Organization has called stress a modern day epidemic affecting every person of every culture, educational status, and financial level across the world. Too much stress is the reason we end up sick and burned out. We know there must be something more than the hustle and bustle of modern-day life and yet forget to take the time to find our unique sense of balance.

Gandhi once said, There is more to life than increasing its speed. This is even more true in the modern world. It is essential then that you discover what will bring you a harmonious and balanced lifestyle. There are many ways to bring more balance to your life. Here are 10 ways I have found that work, which should get you thinking of even more uniquely suited to you.

1.Have Faith in a Higher Power
Voltaire once said, Faith consists in believing when it is beyond the power of reason to believe. Having faith in a higher power helps you face even the darkest hours. Faith gives you peace of mind and an open heart. It lights the dark tunnel and allows you to walk forward courageously.Action Step: Choose a favorite inspirational quote about faith and put it in your wallet.

2. Assess Your Life
Human beings are similar to a computer: we both operate on programming. What we put in, we get back. And if we put in or take on too much, we get overloaded, and then burn out. Assessing where you are now will help you to know what to do, where to go, and what to leave behind. Action Step: List all the stressful events that have happened to you in the last year.

3.Live By Your Values
Choose to make life choices that stem from your core values---those things that feed your soul. Values are intrinsic beliefs and feelings that develop from our experiences, backgrounds, and culture. You will be pleasantly surprised to find that when your orient your life around your values that life is much more to your liking.Action Step: Identify and define your top 5 values.

4.Develop Boundaries
Boundaries are physical, emotional, and spiritual barriers that keep us safe, protected and nurtured. Having healthy boundaries empowers us to say no when appropriate and attract what we want into our life and keep out garbage. Boundaries show others that you love, care, and value yourself. Action Step: Set a clear boundary with someone close to you this week.

5.Change Your Self-Talk
Balanced living requires balanced thinking. When negative thoughts come up, shut them out and focus on the positive. Your personal operating software is often running off of outdated and old tapes. Consciously create a new tape and upload it to your brain!Action Step: Choose an affirmation that you love and say it out loud ten times every day.

6.Take Control
You are in control of your own life. Nobody makes you stay in bad situations. If you are in a job you despise, an unhealthy relationship, do not wait until you get fired or dumped. Choose to change. Recognize the cause of your discontent and take action. Action Step: Make a change for the better starting now.

7.Clean up and Clear Out
Your physical surroundings have a major impact on your sense of balance. So if you live and work in chaos and clutter, you will feel off center. Cleaning up and clearing out your personal (mind-set and relationships) and environmental (home, office, car) spaces brings instant rejuvenation.Action Step: Tackle a drawer, closet, or garage by the end of the week.

8.Eliminate Tolerations
If you are like most, you are tolerating way too much. A toleration is anything that is stressing you, for example: things that are undone, incomplete projects, and toxic people, places, or situations. Eliminating tolerations is a great way to unleash stored energy and power. Action Step: Eliminate 3 tolerations from your life today.

9.Practice Wellness
Wellness means having a holistic program (mind, body, and spirit). Take care of your body by eating healthy, getting regular exercise and enjoying rest. Nurture your heart and mind with good friends, fun adventures, and learning new things. Refresh your spirit by reading inspirational books, attending church, spending time in nature, etc. Action Step: Do 3 extra things to take care of yourself this week.

10.Simplify Your Life
The key to live more simply is to downsize and release unnecessary things from your life. Simple living is about living deliberately. You choose your existence rather than sailing through life. It is about finding your unique balance. Simplicity asks: Is it right for me? How do I want to live my life? Action Step: Write your philosophy of an ideal life, incorporating elements you most cherish.

There are many ways to bring balance to your life. It starts with making smart decisions and becoming more aware of what makes you happy. Stress is not going away anytime soon, so you may as well start today by creating a program to manage it. Discover what works best for you and commit to doing it on a daily basis. You will quickly learn that balance is not just a nice idea, but an actual reality!

Michelle L. Casto is a Spiritual Life Coach, Speaker, and Author of a dozen books and work books on self-empowerment. Her coaching practice is Brightlight Coaching, she helps people come up with bright ideas for their life and empowers them to freely shine their bright light to the word. Contact her for a complimentary coaching session: michelle@brightlightcoach.com.

Visit virtually: www.brightlightcoach.com www.getsmartseries.com

Michelle L. Casto is a Spiritual Life Coach, Speaker, and Author of a dozen books and work books on self-empowerment. Her coaching practice is Brightlight Coaching, she helps people come up with bright ideas for their life and empowers them to freely shine their bright light to the word. Contact her for a complimentary coaching session: michelle@brightlightcoach.com.Visit virtually: http://www.brightlightcoach.com http://www.getsmartseries.com

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Your Life's Vision

Your Life's Vision
By Larry DeRusha

As the new year begins, it is always a good idea to take alook at your life's vision to decide if you are on-track ornot. When I say life's vision I mean the vision your soulhas for your life. If you haven't taken the time to vision,I'll give you a technique to accomplish it. If you haveyour vision already use this technique to re-energizing it.

Let's make a distinction between visioning andvisualization, which I call imagining.

Imagining

This process is to visualize some thing or situation usingyour imagination. Perhaps you want a new job. Let's usethe desire for a new job and the process as a demonstration.

1. Sit quietly in a place where it is comfortable. Thisplace should be relatively dark and quiet so your senseswill not engage in the outer world so easily. Then as youare sitting take a deep breath and let out all the air. Now breathe normally and close your eyes. Allow youawareness to focus on your breath. If your mind is busythinking of all kinds of things you may want to chant - usethe word elax. Just repeat it over and over until yourmind is quiet your breathing steady.

2. Next, imagine yourself in this new position/job.

3. Imagine all of the detail in this picture. Look aroundin your mind's eye picture and notice the detail. Noticecolors, what if anything is being said what it feels like.If this is a still picture see if you can turn it into amovie.

4. Once you have this picture and detail the next criticalstep is to experience what it feels like when you areworking in this new position. To do this look at thepicture/movie and notice how wonderful or fulfilling itfeels. Notice this in your body right now as if theexperience is actually happening.

By combining what you see hear and what you feel in yourimagination, you present to the mind a circumstance-a moldinto which the universe pours reality. Imagining is veryimportant to the creation process. Being able to imaginewhat it is you want to create is a necessary part ofconscious creation. You may want to practice this severaltimes. I sat for two weeks on and off doing this processuntil I just couldn't any more. The results showed upwithin two weeks.

There are several cautions. If you have doubt about thecircumstance you are imagining you are actually impedingits creation. The more doubt, the less likely the creationwill take place. The reason why you create what you havealways had is you have faith in what you have alreadycreated and believe it to be your truth. The second cautionis not to expect too short a time frame. It will happenwhenever you have fully accepted your desire as true ofyour life. The time it takes to clear your doubts is theamount of time that will pass before you experience whatyou wish to create. Practice this process daily to chipaway at your resistance to having what you desire.

Visioning

Unlike imaging, visioning is a function of the intuitivemind. It allows you to tap into your soul and see yourfuture. Visioning is sitting in the silence of meditationand allowing yourself (ego) to dissolve into the somethingbeyond the conscious mind and beyond the Local Story to theGreater Story. It is from this place that you can seeyour life and how it unfolds for the highest good. Thisgives your life a reference point to determine if you areon-track.

When I first visioned my life, I sat in a quiet placewhere I wouldn't be disturbed for at least three hours.This would give me time to quiet my conscious mind and moveinto the silence. Some people take longer and some lesstime to accomplish this same thing. When I sat and foundthe silence I saw parts of a movie playing. The overalltheme was helping people to find deeper meaning in theirlives and to use my intuition to open people to theirvision.

If you haven't captured your life's vision yet, begin bytaking this question into meditation: What is the highestgood that I can allow to come through me? This questioncan open the door as you move into a deeper, more relaxedmeditative state. If the vision doesn't come the firsttime you sit - try again. It may take several sittings.Few of us have cultivated our intuitive powers. Is it anywonder then why the first time or two or three we come upblank?

Furthermore, your purpose in this life can be more readilyunderstood when you catch your life's vision. This visionis the internal picturing of your purpose unfolding-thereason why you exist. When you create a life plan orblueprint for your life part of the plan must be to visionyour life. Take the time to catch the vision of your lifeand watch the miracles happen.

Larry DeRusha is Chairman of CSBN, a TV network for the self-directed spiritual seeker. He is also a minister and author. Finding your life purpose is one of the themes ofhis program, The Roar From Within - Your Destiny Calls, released in December 2005. More details about the program can be found at http://www.roarfromwithin.com.

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Your Mindset Determines Your Success in Life

Your Mindset Determines Your Success in Life
By Sopan Greene

To keep at the top of your game you have to keep a clear head. You can't afford to fill up on news and negativity. The world's overflowin' with it and the only way to be a winner is to be in control of your thoughts.

Your thoughts become words, your words become actions and your actions become your destiny. Someone else came up with that, but I've always remembered it because it's true. Our actions show who we truly are and how shallow or deep our character is.

Where you are today is a direct reflection of the words, thoughts and actions you took days, months and years ago. No matter how much some people blame their parents,teachers, where they grew up, television, the government or anything else, the truth is that nobody got them where they are today but themselves. The longer we choose to not take responsibility for our lives, the longer we'll living uninspired lives that we don't love.

I've heard 40 year old adults who complain about their lives and take no responsiblility for what they've created. Give me a break. If you think you're on the recieving end of life you're mistaken and too lazy to do anything about it.

Simply think about the pictures you've seen on TV of people in third world countries. When I start to get mad about having to stand behind two people in a line at the grocery store I remind myself that a lot of people don't even know where their food will come from tonight. This shifts me from anger to gratitude.

The next time you notice yourself getting frustrated or angry about something in your life I invite you to shift your focus onto what's great in your life. It doesn't matter if you think you don't have enough money or you're mad at your dog for chewing up a shoe. Remember how much love you get from having your dog in the first place and how your weekly earnings are more than some people make in a month or year.

Keep your focus on what is working - for you and for others. We are bombarded with negative input all day long. We need to watch what goes in because our livlihoods depend on what we creatively crank out. Our heads need to be full of positive inspiration or free space where we can dream.

A recent study revealed that the people who watch the most television news are the most fearful in our society. Crime has been going down in America for over a decade, but since the news focuses on it and repeats it over and over, a lot of people are receiving multiple messages that the world isn't safe. These people end up being less confident and less successful as a result of being emotinally paralyzed to a degree by their fears.

Remember the old phrase garbage in, garbage out? If you Were asked to be on television based on the person you are today would be on Jerry Springer or Oprah?

Yeah, I know. You're probably laughing or snickering right now. I can practically see that questioning look of disbelief on your face.

You may even think that you wouldn't be on either one. Just imagine that there's a guy at your door and he's going to put you in a limo right now and you have to pick one show or the other to be a guest on or you'll be locked in your house for a month. (It's silly, but you get the point, I want you to get into it).

There's a definite difference between Oprah guests and Jerry's guests. Oprah's guests radiate confidence and have taken responsibility for their lives and have created lemonade out of lemons. Jerry's guests radiate low self esteem and think they're victims of life. Even worse, they think they have a right to inflict their negative self-defeating attitude on others.

Oprah people know that they're on the creative end of life. Jerry people choose to think they're on the receiving end of life. And the truth is that if that's what they beleive then thats what they get. It's an easy cop out to settle in life and a lot of folks do it.

It's important to keep a positive mental attitude nomatter what your life is like because nothing is more important than your thoughts. They determine how you'll experience the next minute, hour, day, week, year, decade and century. Rid your life of people and circumstances that don't inspire and enliven you. Life's simply too short to put up distracting drama and complainers who never change anything.

We all throw around phrases about how life is too short, but we don't live that way. Take at least one action today to reaffirm that you're creating a life you love.

Fire a friend who drains your energy. Read from an autobiography of a person who inspires you. Turn off the TV and write your goals and values. Take a walk in nature or with a friend who supports the best in you. Write a note to someone who has impacted your life in a positive way to let them know you're grateful for having them in your life. Rub your dog's belly and watch a doggy smile of ecstasy come out to greet you.

You're building a powerful future. Study successful people and you'll notice they all surround themselves with other inspired and successful people. Your life is your show, choose to be an Oprah person and aviod the Jerry people who show up in your life. Or better yet, treat the Jerry people you meet like they are the Oprah person buried inside them so we can all shine together.

Let your positive mental attitude infect everyone you meet and we'll all enjoy better lives.

About The Author

Sopan Greene, M.A.

http://www.AngryEnoughToChange.com

ARE YOU SICK AND TIRED OF BEING SICK AND TIRED YET?

Grab your FREE e-mail course: How To Get Angry Enough to Change?! along with 2 FREE eBooks: Angry Enough to Change?: 8 True Stories About Real People and The Angry Enough to Change? Quiz mailto:webmaster87-41205@autocontactor.com

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Inspiration: Some More Life Lessons I've Learned Along the Way So Far

Inspiration: Some More Life Lessons I've Learned Along the Way So Far
By Jeff Herring

• I don't know anyone who has not thought of a great idea for a product or service and then someone else make lots of money with it later. So next time you get a great idea, put it into action.
• I have just one question for husbands, or wives for that matter, who don't believe in marriage counseling: Do you believe more in divorce?
• People who talk on cell phones should be made to clean up the floor after the movie, using only their bare hands and tongue.
• The more I do this counseling thing, the more I realize how very much I do not know.
• Most parents of teenagers play human alarm clocks every morning, trying to get their kids out of bed. Research shows that teenagers need more sleep than adults. At the same time, there could be several factors contributing to your teen being too tired in the morning. One possibility many parents do not consider is that some time between bedtime and the morning, their teen has snuck out of the house and then back in again. Check for exit signs above the window.
• Thoughts and ideas have consequences. We try to think and act as if this is not true, but the sometimes painful reality is that it is true.
• Wouldn't it be cool if teachers coming out of college were treated like star athletes? You know, multi-million dollar contracts and signing bonuses.

Visit The Internet Article Guy for more leading edge tips and tools for writing articles that bring you prospects, publicity and profits. You can also subscribe to our monthly Article Writing & Marketing Tips Newsletter. You are also invited to visit my Express-Start Article Writing Program for more information on the next article writing tele-seminar.

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Your Most Important Opportunity says a top UK Personal Development Coach

Your Most Important Opportunity says a top UK Personal Development Coach
By Jo Ball

For some people this article will turn out to be one of the most important things theyve ever read.

I say this because some people are ready to get to grips with life. In the next year some people will put their lives on the map. Theyll know clearly what they intend to have happen and, more importantly, why.

Do you want to be part of the crowd making the switch to the dizzying heights of happiness and when I talk about happiness, I'm talking about real Happiness? Do you want to feel good after a fulfilling day at work? Do you want to live a dream relationship? Do you want you to be building wonderful bonds with your children, easily, and taking the steps to reach your full potential as a human being?

If you do, the good news is this: change can be easy. Here is how

First, stop ignoring your instincts: that slumping feeling or that feeling of nausea or the little voice in your head that says:

'I want more out of life than I'm getting.'

Accept it as part of you and welcome that feeling. Is it telling you that youre not being rewarded or is it saying you are not being fulfilled in work?

Or is the feeling hinting something else is not right the relationship with your partner or your children?

When you listen to your instincts and accept that things are not right you put yourself back in the driving seat where you can recreate situations and get to grips with life.

When you ignore them, they return over and over again, often increasing in intensity until you have to deal with them.

Sooner or later you will have to deal with all the issues in life. Why wait until they get to the point of danger where you feel ill or you feel like your world is falling apart? Deal with them while the pressure is not too intense. Deal with them now.

If you leave it too late you wont be in the best frame of mind and youll more than likely handle it poorly.

Your instinct is your greatest opportunity. It is there to help you navigate through life, like a rudder on a ship. The problem is all too often we ignore it and try to navigate using logic, which is more like snapping the rudder off and hoping for the best.

I don't want my newsletter readers to be the envy of their friends and family. I want them to be the example! If you want to earn more, be happier in your work, have a better sex life or a fitter body then join my free newsletter. Well even send you a free e-book on finding greater happiness our way of welcoming you to our fast-growing readership.

Join us now at http://www.unstoppablelife.com

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Your Only Option is Success

Your Only Option is Success
By Herndon Davis

(The following is the part 1 of a 2 part series focusing on achieving success in ones life.)

Did you realize that your life was actually pre-destined for success and that you were hard-wired and pre-planned for greatness? Can you imagine your life surfing on a continual high, wave, and generation of success? If not, then get used to the idea, because success is your only option in life.

But how you argue? Everyone cant be rich, there can only be one at the top, not everyone is educated, and therere so many living in poverty, how possibly can everyone have success as their only option?

Well Im so glad you asked. Lets first re-define success. Success isnt a dollar amount, an overpriced car, or a vast countryside estate. These are only the window-dressings of perceived success.

Success is achieving what the God of your Understanding has pre-destined you to do and to become. And the icing on the cake is that when you are obedient in doing and becoming what the Universe desires, then the window-dressings of success will always follow. Its just that simple!

But thats too easy you say. If thats the case then the entire world be successful. YES, thats it!! The entire world is meant to be successful! You see success comes in many different forms, shapes and colors. The Universe stands ready to hoist upon you volumes of success, if only you would allow your life, your words, your actions, and your love to be transformed and used for the spiritual purpose and plan it was meant for.

But as you think about it some more you desperately try to convince yourself this really isnt the path. Not everyone can thrive you say. Not everyone can be rich, not everyone can be middleclass, the economic system just doesnt work that way. All 6.4 billion people in the world simply cannot exist when everyone succeeds and no one ever fails.

Well sir/madam, I am here to happily inform you that you are completely and utterly dead-wrong!! With all of your might you cling to the mistaken belief that there are scarce, limited resources in the world and even scarcer, limited time to grab your share of it. This is why the blessings of the universe have not yet been opened to you.

Success is your only option but youre in a holding pattern waiting to take off. You see youre still stuck on the ground; you havent yet begun to fly. The reason youre stuck on the ground is because of your limited thinking, limited knowledge and limited understanding of a God that owns and operates everything in the universe and beyond.

Youre also stuck thinking that your life is really about you. Instead your life is meant to be utilized by God and through its use, your success will come. I would dare estimate that a few billion people in this world are in a holding pattern due to their limited enlightenment. Okay, Okay you shout. Ill give it a try but how do I know what I was meant to do? How do I find my purpose in life??

Well heres the formula:

Prayer + Meditation + Self-Action = Purpose x 2,3,4 or more = Success

1. Prayer is you talking to God.

2. Meditation is you listening to God. (much harder to do)

3. Self-Action is doing what you hear God telling you to do. (even harder to do)

4. Purpose is the sum of your Prayer, Meditation, and Self-Action

5. Success is your purpose magnified or multiplied times 2, 3 4 or more. Whatever the amount of effort you put into living out your purpose is returned to you in your success (i.e. window dressings that we covet such as money, car, house etc).

Sounds really easy doesnt it? Well it is, until you find out what your purpose is; thats when you start to back away. You see some of you were meant to teach, others preach, others were meant to sing, others were meant to listen, while other were meant to build and create something from nothing.

Some of you were meant to become the targets of others (i.e. activists) while others were meant to change their careers altogether and become and do something that initially their heart does not desire.

So instead of living out your purpose and receiving the success you were meant to have, you remain on the ground waiting to take off, but you never do. So in essence, you never take advantage of the only option available to you which is success.

Success is waiting to be eagerly and generously bestowed upon you, but instead you spend your life in a holding pattern then you eventually die unhappy and unfulfilled blaming it all on God or on your being gay/lesbian.

Well Im happy to report that Ive decided to live my life embracing the only option that is available to me, which is success. Do you want to join me? Will you join me? If so, then Ill see you at the mountaintop!

Inspirational Author, Lecturer, and TV Host. Herndon Davis can be reached directly at http://herndondavis.com.

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True Success In Wood And Water

True Success In Wood And Water
By Robert Warren

Let's get right to the point, folks.

We're all looking to succeed, in our own individual ways, and we're all looking for nuggets of wisdom to lead our course. We wake up every morning in search of meaningful thoughts that will carry the day. Sometimes optimistic little catch-phrases work; other times, a new insight into market dynamics or a book on client relations sparks that day's adventure.

And it is an adventure. That's why we're out there fighting every day - because, in the end, we've rejected the idea that modern life is an eighty-year exercise in waiting for the inevitable. We want to walk beaches, climb mountains, love deeply, life our lives fully. We live for the joy of never knowing what strange lands our journeys will take us to that day, what people we will meet or who we will become as a result.

We're in this game for passion. We're doing it for love.

And in the pursuit of success, sometimes it's very, very easy to forget that. We all have bad days, setbacks, even the occasional disaster - a lost opportunity, a lost client, a computer crash - and question just how on earth we're going to keep doing this. If we're not careful, we then start naturally falling back into the pattern of wanting every day to be a good day, a safe day, a predictable day. We close ourselves from life and slowly forget everything about why we started this in the first place.

As you're out there in the world, folks, remember to be patient. Learn to take a deep breath occasionally. Enjoy simple experience as often as you can, and accept the passing days with the gratitude of one alive. Keep the faith.

There's an ancient Buddhist proverb that goes, Before enlightenment, chop wood and carry water; after enlightenment, chop wood and carry water. It's a good saying, not only for seeking an enlightened mind, but for seeking success in any fashion; it means to keep doing the work, no matter what. Be patient. Keep going. Don't be distracted by your own success - let it instead flow through your efforts naturally, without trying to cup it in your hands. Take the days as they come, and feel the joy of each day passing, whether good or bad.

Experience the passionate life of one who chops wood, carries water, and is content. True success, in all its forms, will follow.

About The Author

Robert Warren (www.rswarren.com) is a Florida-based freelance copywriter specializing in the unique marketing needs of independent professionals.

writer@rswarren.com

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